Medicine: Capsules, Jun. 26, 1972

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>Passengers in planes stacked up over a congested airport may find the experience nervousmaking, but travelers only rarely have to endure that kind of tension. For air traffic controllers on the ground, facing the possibility of causing a calamity each working day, the stress is unremitting and the effects on the digestive system horrendous. A study by the newly formed Academy of Air Traffic Control Medicine in St. Charles, 111., shows that ulcers are distressingly commonplace among control-tower personnel. The annual incidence in American physicians, for example, is between 2.5% and 4% Even among alcoholics, whose digestive tracts are subject to constant assaultt, the rate is only 9%. Dr. Richard Grayson has examined 111 air controllers since 1970 and reports that 77.5% had symptoms severe enough to make further tests essential; 32.5% actually had ulcers.

>Medical authorites generally blame poor sanitation, blood transfusions and drug addicts' needles for the spread of serum hepatitis, a debilitating and sometimes fatal liver disease. Now it appears that the mosquito might also transmit the ailment. Studies by Rutgers University, the New York Blood Center and the New Jersey Medical School concentrated on tropical mosquitoes. After drawing blood from a person known to be a chronic carrier of hepatitis, the laboratory-raised insects retained the virus for three days and presumably could have transmitted the infection if allowed to attack another victim. The researchers know of no hepatitis cases that can be attributed directly to mosquitoes, but the source of the disease is often untraceable. The new findings are yet another reason for communities to conduct vigorous anti-mosquito campaigns.

>Among the causes of pain in rheumatoid arthritis are inflammation of the synovium (the membrane lining the joint capsule) and subsequent erosion of the enclosed cartilage and bone. Doctors generally prescribe painkillers and other anti-inflammatory drugs including common aspirin. But according to Dr. Alan Wilde of the Cleveland Clinic, early surgery may provide more permanent relief and slow the progress of the disease as well. Wilde told a scientific session of the Arthritis foundation that he had performed synovectomies on 39 patients, delicately removing the inflamed tissue from a total of 121 finger joints. Most of the patients experienced complete relief of pain, while a few showed partial improvement. Arrosion of the joint surface continued in about a third of the patients. In nearly half, the deterioration stopped, while in a few cases, removal of the diseased synovium actually casued the damaged cartilage to heal.